Ronnie Williams watched in 2017 as Chase Dowling hunted down an SK Modified championship with team owner Adam Skowyra at Stafford Motor Speedway.

In 2018 it will be Williams taking over the seat that Dowling had so much success with at Stafford this past season.

Skowyra confirmed to RaceDayCT Friday that Williams will take over his No. 50 SK Modified ride for the 2018 season at Stafford.

Skowyra and Dowling parted ways after one season together. Dowling went into the final race of the season at Stafford in a virtual dead heat with Keith Rocco in the battle for the SK Modified title. Rocco took home the prize, besting Dowling by six points in the standings. Dowling ended the season with four victories and 12 top-fives in 17 events at Stafford in 2017 driving for Skowyra.

“I’m actually really pumped up,” Williams said. “… As you can see last year, they basically had a winning car every week unless they got wrecked. I’m definitely excited to be with a group of guys that just have the teamwork that they do.”

Williams finished third in the SK Modified standings in 2017 at Stafford, 26 points behind Rocco. He had one victory and nine top-five’s in 17 starts.

“Ronnie was one of my first choices as a driver,” Skowyra said “He’s just a good young kid. … He’s clean. He doesn’t wreck stuff.”

The 21-year old Williams has eight career SK Modified victories at Stafford since the 2014 season.

Skowyra expected to have Dowling returning in 2018, but last month Dowling announced he would drive for team owner Glenn Johnson in an SK Modified at Stafford as part of a deal with the chassis company LFR and Rob Fuller Motorsports. Dowling, who works at LFR, will race full-time on the Whelen Modified Tour for Fuller and also race an LFR chassis for Johnson in the SK Modified division at Stafford. Skowra fields a Troyer chassis with his team.

“I was so blindsided by what happened that I just needed to take a couple weeks and figure out what I wanted to do,” Skowyra said. “I sat down and talked to the crew and [Williams] was the guy we wanted to do this with. I’m more than happy putting all that other crap behind me. Never in a million years did I think I would have a new driver announcement going into 2018, but I’m really looking forward to this year now. I think Ronnie is going to be a great fit for us.”

Williams had been competing the last four seasons in the SK Modified division at Stafford for his family owned team. He said he will likely use one of his family owned rides to run in the SK Modified division at Thompson Speedway and also keep a car prepared as a backup ready for Skowyra’s team.

“It’s really the main goal coming to this team is to win races and win the championship,” Williams said. “I think me and Adam are on the same page with that.”

Williams ran 10 of 16 Whelen Modified Tour events in 2017 with the Joe Bertuccio owned organization. He said he will compete for that team in the Tour Type Modified events in February at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway.

“We’ve had some talk about doing the full tour schedule,” Williams said. “We’ll be meeting with Joe Bertuccio in January to talk about finalizing those deals.”

The 50 Skowyra machine stays on the track…..great news. Loss of the 49 on Friday nights……unfortunate. Anticipation for great Dowling/Williams battles……very high. Thank you Mr. Skowyra for reconsidering and oh by the way, brilliant move.

Latka may be a retired mechanic but Williams won’t be in the 49 anything, he’s already had a chance on the tour and may expand his presence there, there is no such thing as Dare Stocks anymore and for their replacement the 2 barrel is the mandated carb. Other then that, perfection.

Wow, this is great news. Stafford does lose the 49/59 Williams family car but this seems great for Ronnie. He can still run at Stafford and sounds like at Thompson with his family team PLUS run full time for the 21 team Tour car. I hope Chase is paying attention to this. Ronnie just ended up in the same situation that Chase is in Running Stafford and the tour but Ronnie did it with class and his good reputation as a person and driver without causing any bad blood or by burning any bridges. Lesson to be learned here young man. Adam, there is no better driver you can work with so great job and best of luck to you and your team. Ronnie, best of luck in all you do this year. We love watching you race no matter what number car you are in.

Place your bets. My money is on Dowling and LFR. You don’t run like they did on the tour and NOT figure out how to do it in a SK. Those cars are BAD FAST! Look up close at one and if you know race cars you will see the clear difference.

If he’s still upset he needs to grow up Dareal. Matt Kenseth got replaced for NO reason and don’t cry as much as Adam did. It’s a SK ride at Stafford for crying out loud! The way he has been running his mouth about Fuller and Chase is unbelievable. He should shut his mouth and speak with actions like mature adults do. Haven’t seen Fuller bashing anyone on social media as Adam has been. I’m at the show in Springfield and it appears they have been working on building great cars not focused on drama. My moneys on them too Jim.

Dowling a punk. Skowyra running his mouth. Where? Do you know that Ricky or are you just assuming it. Dowling explained what he was doing to Adam as he should have. It’s a great opportunity. Skowyra’s facebook page shows he signed up Williams, likes dogs a whole lot and Trump as well and was mad about Dowling………….like weeks ago. Now a happy guy with Williams.
What’s with the viscous attacks. If you have some inside information say what it is. Otherwise you’re getting wound up about a controversy that has long been settled and seems to have made everyone pretty darned happy. Go Pats.

Just had a thought. Ted Christopher in his better place may be smiling. Smiling for all the crap he took, some based on his actions but in large part imagined by we race fans for no other reason then he was Ted Christopher. The guy with the black hat. Race fans always want a bad guy. Chase, like it or not, tag, you’re it in the Stafford SK division.

Doug look at the social media posts Adam has been involved in and talk with any of Chase’s sponsors or supporters and you will find out a lot about who has been the professional in this situation. The cream will always rise to the top and the truth is something no one can hide from.

No hand me downs there the 50 was a brand new ’17 troyer with the best of everything even their spare part we’re new top dollar all the way and they know how to win with it. Have yet to see a competitive LFR SK at Stafford. If they do have a win it’s because all the fast guys wrecked but we’ll have to wait and see how chase does or doesn’t do no worries for Ronnie he’s in a proven winner and has the talent to get the job done

Outside of coby’s tour car and the LFR house tour car LFR cars don’t impress me and have yet to see a fast LFR SK Maybe chase can change that will have to wait to see but if he does good and wins races I would still say it ain’t the car it’s the driver

I did check social media RickyW. Dogs, Trump and mainly what racedayct has reported on. Talk to sponsors. Sure I’ll get right on that. I think you’re just a good fan venting on stuff that happened weeks ago and are having trouble moving on.
So Rob p hasn’t seen a competitive LFR chassis in the Stafford SK field. Well guess what, it’s mainly cause there is like only one. Todd Owen has more of his chassis in the field. Two. Himself and Josh Wood. Troyer and Chassis Dynamics overwhelmingly dominate. You can bet one thing for sure. If Dowling wins on a regular basis you’ll see more. That’s what you’re talking about isn’t it. Trying to break into a market dominated by established wiiners. Ain’t easy.

Good point Doug. Darreal says they aren’t doing good in the tour Hahahaha. I guess he hasn’t been to the championship banquet the last 3 years or watched the last race at Thompson. The black 15 dominated sitting on the pole dropping to last place at the green and missing the win by 3 feet. Oh yea, there’s only 1 full time LFR on the tour also! 15-44 ran part time schedules and the 44 won both races at Loudon! No sucess in the tour. Wow. What’s next? Wade Cole is in a Troyer so don’t bring up the 01. Too bad Santa can’t deliver some reality to these people. If this series had as cars as they do drama now that would be great. It’s like women in racing.

Thanks for the info Paul. Sounds like LFR has to step up their game in the SK’s and SKL’s. They run good on the WMT tour however if they want to sell more product they need to get in victory lane in the lower two divisions more often.

Chassis’s are like the seasons. Periodically something ignites the topic and it’s off to the races pun intended. Here we go from yea Ronnie to punks and mouth running ending up with the better chassis.
Come on man, how different could they be as long as they’re first quality. Todd Owen runs up front and does his own. They need to be consistent and absorb energy in a crash. Who’s is cheaper, anyone know? Add all the components, the chassis manufacturer means less. Crash any chassis changing everything and then the chassis becomes who ever fixes it. I say it’s what’s known and what isn’t. If it’s me shelling out a boat load of money you can darn well bet that I’d be bolting parts on to a proven winner and letting someone else try the new guy. Am I wrong?

Humphrey. Ok why should you focus on anything “lower” than the top? So the Red Sox should focus on the Pawtucket team? So if that’s the case CD should have the most cars on the tour and they don’t have one. Those LFR cars are the best cars on the tour hands down. Time will tell how they do at Stafford next year with a good driver and you know Fuller will be involved. Either way it will be fun to watch! They have one car in the field in SK at the bowl and win races still it seems. Whos Timmy Jordan anyway? Not a Rocco or TC I’m thinking.

LFR kicks ass down south in both mods and late models not taking anything away from them but troyer dominates up north as they should with as many dealers as they have and teams running their cars maybe someday LFR will be as big?

Well in my opinion you are kind of right. The issue as I see it is you will never get everyone in an LFR on the tour. The 51 made a change for next year, they went to Troyer, the 20 went to SPAFCO, why not LFR? I would rather go into the racing chassis business with a marketing strategy that the XYZ chassis is the chassis that dominates in every division they race in WMT, SK, MRS, MTS, SKL not just one. That is how you build business and sell product.

And correct me if I am wrong, if Preece would not have missed the two tour races this year what manufacturer would have probably won the championship? Troyer?

Elect, the recently obsoleted small block built motors were faster than the big block motors. What’s your point?

If Preece did not get married and run in the xfinity series, he would have the championship this year. Just a friendly reminder. And he would have won the championship by about 30 points. Ed partridge won the Owner Points, and that is good enough to say that Troyer won the championship this year.

The 51 went Troyer???? Sounds like someone leaked some info. RobP if a chassis other than LFR dominates how have they not won a championship? Learn me that. I do agree that it sounds like everyone is happy. Dareal says that they ran Chase’s engines and the tires were paid for by another sponsor so now it makes sense why Adam-was so tore up. Sounds like he has to actually spend some of his money next year. It all makes sense now folks. No wonder he bashed Fuller and Dowling and their pets. The truth always seems to come out in the end.

Dareal I believe the point is that the cars are faster because the chassis are better. I wouldn’t expect you to get that though. Go tell Nascar to change their rules. Until that happens there is not 1 championship won by anyone else. How many Loudon races has LFR won? Maybe all of them in the past 3 years? How many Thompson and so on. I know reality eludes you but the facts are facts. On another note where is the 51 going Troyer article? Did I miss that? That’s bigger than any of this non sense. I’m in CT and have not heard anything about that. Humphry send the link or social media post please. Thanks!

RickyW is right about the money. Most important thing in this entire reshuffling of the deck. Ronnie Williams helped by his family I am guessing have fielded a top tier car for a few years with multi feature wins and great finishes in the point standings. He may actually bring more resources to the Skowyra operation including a great back up car. Oh ya, it would not appear money and great equipment will be a problem. Personally I’ll be rooting for Dowling. Edgy and a risk taker. Williams a little too tame like Todd Owens. Not that there’s anything wrong with either of those great drivers. Great insights from a bunch of angles. Can’t wait to see how this unfolds.

Coby won the championship because preece missed 2 races driving for JGR in the Xfinity series otherwise he would have won and troyer is his chassis of choice at Stafford Rocco won the championship in a Troyer. But none of that matters now it’s a new year who knows someone might show up in a race works car and school everybody that’s just the way racing goes.

Humphry, inside info is good I guess. Their stuff has been listed for 2 weeks. That doesn’t mean they are buying Troyer’s. If people in the industry would just state facts this website would go out of business. Can’t believe anything unless it comes from the source so I’m assuming you work in the team. Either way that team needs to do something big. Shawn, you must know something on this! Write it up! That’s a good story. This is just SK drama. Call Humphry and get the details. Humphry needs to break the story. So it’s Troyer cars. Who’s the crew chief??

Drivers usually bring money to the deal and you get sponsorship to pay for things like tires and fuel nothing new there for at least the last 40 years I’ve been in racing but car owners still end up spending money just look at some of the tow rigs that show up let alone shop space tools ect. There’s a phrase in racing ” speed costs money…how fast do you want to go” no car owner gets a free ride

What the hell have you been smoking LFR won it’s first championship on the tour in 2015 they now have 2. How many does troyer have? Bet it’s more than 2 as they secured the 2017 championship even though preece missed 2 races before you say LFR is the GOAT check the stats they are far from it.

When did racing become so political and cut throat to me racing was about having fun when it stopped being fun I stopped doing it. Should it really matter what chassis it is or who built the motor or who buys the tires if a team is a front running team it’s probly due to allot of hard work and sometimes the best equipment doesn’t always win but I’ll bet you those folks are having fun because that’s what it should be about. God bless

Gunsmoke stables supplied the car. Adam bought the motor believe he still has it when they parted ways gunsmoke stables took the car which ended up being the 52 that Woody ran a few tour races in. Nothing new in racing happens more than you think when TC drove the 00 at the 2017 sizzler Brady’s car Ted’s motor.

Doug, you are right. I did hear Stash is not working on the 50 team at Stafford but will be Ronnie’s crew chief on the tour and at Thompson Running their Waterford car. Williams has some good sponsors and his family is loaded, so he’s bringing more resources to the 50 team than Chase did. Adam will be fine. I do like Ronnie as a driver more than Chase but these two young shoes really should be the face of the future of the SK division. They both run hard and clean, and Doug, be real, Owen is not in their league. I’d love to see Stafford promote these two young men and their passion to compete against each other. Kind of like the next TC/Rocco chapter.

Rob, I don’t know about you but no one else cares about what happened 5 years ago. No one said LFR is goat but the fact is they have been the better chassis in the past 3 years. I agree with you on the politics. When the dust lands you can hate LFR for the sucess but that company put the tour on their ear and made a couple chassis manufactured have to step up and catch up. They made crew chiefs have to work harder and it all made the racing better. Kudos to them for that. They caught the others sleeping for sure. Now we have the TA2 Z link and updated Spafco. Welcome to the show Boys! That’s why I am a fan. I love competition because it makes everyone better in the end. I want to see LFR design another one. Everyone will have to keep up with them because they have the resources to advance. Will be interesting to see how Justin runs in his Troyer. I would have gone LFR but that’s just me.

I don’t think any of this is political. It’s lively banter. Helps keep our interest up in anticipation for the coming season. People say a lot of informative things too. People that are insiders with teams sneak in here with anonymous screen ID’s and provide some great insights. I know I feel more informed about the teams and changes.
Todd Owen not in the same class as the two young pups SK ModFan. Not as young, not as fresh, not as colorful for sure. But Owen is a perpetual front runner and in his own chassis design. And I’m not even a fan of his. Oh well, when it comes to rooting for drivers and teams there is no wrong answer.

There is no LFR. It’s fury chassis
There built in North Carolina and sent up to rob’s in mass. and he puts his LFR tag on them and sells them. So he get’s credit for doing nothing.
The guy’s a blowhard and when I get a couple more people involved I’m gonna start a Furey dealer up north and put that Fuller waste out of business once and for all! Go choice chace

Back to business yes I would expect Ronnie Williams to run up front in the 50 car. I would also expect the same from Chase stepping into what essentially will be a LFR house car with most likely allot of help from Fuller so there you have it. Don’t count out pennick Rocco and yes even Todd Owens. 2018 looks to be a competitive year at Stafford can’t wait to see.

John Davis nails it. Around September 2016 Fury Chassis did purchase the rights to LFR. Although you could argue that Fuller had a hand in the design, sold the rights and purchased a license to sell his design. Guessing on that. Maybe someone can fine tune it.
All this talk of chassis design going back over a year and no one mentions Fury that I can recall until John Davis. My question would be if this is Ct why not run a Chassis Dynamic’s car? Troyer in Rochester, Fury in North Carolina and CD in Oxford, CT. Need help, need your chassis tuned or repaired they’re right around the corner.

Well, I still don’t understand why the founder of this chassis company lets it go after just a couple years and then moves up north. So now he is just private labeling Fury chassis as LFR. Why would someone start a modified chassis company down south where modifieds are as rare as the Ivory Billed Woodpecker? Looks like Fury is primarily a Late Model chassis house, probably because of very little modified sales.

Anyways, good luck to Skowyra and Williams.

humphry, clean, pure speed passing does not happen in the turns. The cars are nose-to-tail in the turns, or somebody gets a nose under and moves another car, in the turns. This applies to the competitive cars. I do this observation with my eyes. And the cars are not at full throttle in the turns, meaning horsepower is NOT factor in the turns. Horsepower lets cars pass on the straights. And flux capacitors. Horsepower can help overcome Crew Chief deficiencies. The #2 NWMT car has HUGE horsepower.

The fictional flux capacitor never was responsible for movement through space or time and cars do not “coast” through corners. Horsepower is absolutely a factor from the moment deceleration transitions to acceleration with speed a function of the interrelationship between horsepower and traction. More horsepower makes traction under acceleration more difficult. It’s an ever changing dynamic affected by limitless variables not the least of which is track configuration and distance. The horsepower vs handling argument doesn’t exist for people that race. They are one.

SPAFCO, sure. But I don’t see any SK’s at Stafford with them so what’s the deal? The whole chassis thing is crazy anyway. Who can tell what’s going on with these operations. LFR is really Fury and no one seemed to know about it. Raceworks had a deal with LFR a while back and who knows if they even are fixing their stuff any more. SK Lights have a few SPAFCO’s that I guess didn’t come from the SK’s. SPAFCO has a great web site and supplies some winners that mostly aren’t in CT. The only thing i know is Troyer and Chassis Dynamics dominate the SK’s at Stafford. It’s crazy man.

Once again Lionel Train Engineer if you are going to kick sand in someones face make sure you have the sand. Saying there were threads is not the same as finding and quoting the actual references in a thread. It’s you either making things up or being too lazy to look it up.
All that aside I’m perfectly fine being the only one that didn’t know. Didn’t know that Fuller is not building the chassis in Mass. Not knowing that he has a license from Fury to sell the chassis if he does have such an arrangement. Not knowing whether he is repairing the chassis here in the region in his shop. Not knowing what Dowling’s job is in the company if he’s not building chassis. Man I don’t know a lot. But I am grateful to people that share real information like John Davis. Guys with the taunts and sour attitudes not so much.
Tell you what would be really neat. A story or comment from a team owner on the entire process of purchasing a chassis. What goes into the decision on who to use? Is availability for repairs important? Is there a big difference in cost between builders? Are personal relationships and/or the history with the builder important? How big in the record on wins to the decision process? How cool would that be aye?

Glad someone settled the whole fury LFR deal as far as spafco.the only spafco SK to have any success at Stafford was the 50 in 2016 with Woody driving. CD cars have always been good as well as troyer but I would like to see an LFR car in victory lane and I think Dowling is a driver who could do that best wishes for all the drivers and owners in 2018 hope to see some exciting racing but do have to say it won’t be the same without TC. God bless

Doug, I believe this may be the article he is referring to and I am not doing this to aggravate the situation;

LFR To Focus On Sales, Service Of Branded Modified Chassis
August 31, 2016

“Fury Racecars [in Moorseville, N.C.] will be the manufacturer of the LFR Modifieds,” Fuller said. “LFR Northeast will sell and maintain the LFR customers in the New England area. The parts, manufacturing and process will not change in the [North Carolina] facility. The LFR Modified customers will receive more focused attention from the facility in CT. It’s a win win for all involved.”

Back to the horsepower. Yes horsepower is good but with an ill handling car too much horsepower can be worse than not enough. Regardless of the chassis you run or all the horsepower you have a good crew chief goes a long way

Supposedly RACE WORKS is an authorized LFR repair shop. Troyer has Brad Lafontaine in Oxford MA and of course CD and SPAFCO are both in Connecticut so all the major builders have repair sites close by. If it we’re me buying a car technical support would be high on my list along with affordability. Most shops give you a setup that gets you in the ballpark then your on your own but if a chassis builder were at the track on race night to offer help it would go a long way in the decision which car to buy

humphry wrote, “Of course I am certain he will correct me if I am wrong!”

humphry, he doesn’t correct, he just attacks to make it look like what was said was wrong. It’s a chapter out of the Trump playbook. He is wrong, can’t substantiate a defense, so he just attacks with all sorts of irrelevant blathering and bloviating.

Outstanding humphry and thanks. That was before I knew racedayct existed. I did a search, it popped up, I read it and it answered all my questions. The comments at the time were entertaining as well. Dadgumit humphry with this and your Speedbowl drive by updates you’re becoming the must read guy in the comments area.
Accolades to Rob as well. Basically explained that every chassis manufacturer has support in the region. I especially like the comment about affordability. No one ever mentions that.
Another question; so you’re a person getting into an SK Light and you know you’re going to purchase a used chassis. Is knowing that you can send it out to a local manufacturer to have it speced out and straightened if necessary a factor in the purchase decision?
Only 18 shopping days until Christmas.

Yes Doug I would think that if you bought a used let’s say xyz car that xyz chassis would update the car for you shouldn’t matter if it’s bought new or used it’s still their chassis and I would hope they would stand behind their product plus chassis builders don’t like to see their stuff in another guy’s shop.

The same applies with motors those engine builders are a strange breed very secretive even with spec engines. They would prefer to rebuild your recently purchased used motor rather than seeing you go somewhere else

Thanks for the kind words Doug. You see I am not really a bad guy after all. I like others have my opinion, am very passionate about them and certainly don’t mean to offend anyone unless provoked.

The things that were most important to me when I owned a race car was technical support from the chassis dealer/builder regardless who that was. The one I selected I spent a lot of time talking to about what he had to offer. I was very fortunate to have him within about 20-25 minutes from me. Every week he was at the track to assist us with ever we needed and made sure everything was where it needed to be so we were competitive. If I needed him during the week between races he was there. He was also very committed in making certain his product was the best and kept us advised of technical updates.

I think Troyer, CD, Raceworks & SPAFCO have all proven themselves in winning races and championships so it may boil down to personal preference and geographical location to the team. I know this probably does not answer your question entirely about the SKL but just throwing it out there.

Just tried to get pricing for chassis. Troyer TA1chassis bare will set you back 4995.00. No other shop would supply prices. But now you have a bare chassis how much more are you going to spend the get it track ready. In guessing about another 40,000 including motor. Then you have to figure in spare parts. Probly another 10 grand minus motor running costs each week about 600 so as you can see racing ain’t cheap and we haven’t even paid to have the car set up or budgeted for wrecks

I don’t get your comment on the motors Rob. Why wouldn’t they prefer to rebuild a used motor rather then see a potential customer go somewhere else. Aren’t most engines used motors subject to refreshening and rebuilding. Do you mean rebuilding with their own secret sauce from the ground up? What did I miss.

Exactly Doug I don’t think Mike pettit would like to see Billy the kid rebuilding one of his motors. Engine builders all have little secrets things they do to gain horsepower right now I think it’s safe to say that pettit has a significant horsepower advantage and I think if someone bought a used pettit motor Mike would be more than willing to work with that person and keep the motor in house. May be wrong but I don’t think so. Even the crate motors Stafford uses in the lights differ in power depending on who sold it to you there are little things that can be done legally to gain power and as the years go by the builders are getting better at finding these little things. back to used motors a builder is willing to freshen up your used motor and maybe down the road you return to him to buy a new motor. I have great respect for Mike pettit Tony alteri Don wood and Billy the kid they all build good reliable power and did work together a few year’s ago to come up with Stafford spec SK and late model motors but I don’t see them sharing horsepower secrets

One thing I would like to see but I doubt would ever happen would be for the chassis builders to get together and design a spec chassis. Maybe something that could be used for anything for an SK light to a whelen tour car something affordable with the ability to interchange parts that applies the best of each chassis builders design into one safe affordable car. But again I doubt it will ever happen a spec car with a spec motor would put racing back in the driver and crew chiefs hands. Sort of like an IROC deal

Rob, I know of at least one chassis manufacturer that builds his chassis so it can be used for anything from an SKL to Tour configuration. All brackets are in place for several suspension configurations along with brackets for the lubrication system required for a dry sump application. It works to your benefit to purchase one configured this way in case you decide to sell it so it can be universal to the purchaser.

Can’t tell you Rob P how much I appreciate getting the number on the Troyer chassis. As for the rest of the components it’s daunting for sure. Not to mention what a team has in the truck and enclosed trailer and fuel to tow it to races. Daunting.

Doug, last I knew SPAFCO does and matter of fact Troyer might. I am not familiar with CD, LFR and Raceworks.

We ran Waterford in the 80’s in what was then the super stocks and in the 90’s at Thompson in the SK’s. We probably had 30k tied up in the SK which was purchased from another owner as well as the engine. When we purchased the car it was 4 years old and in great shape. The engine was in great shape and only required a re-fresh due to updates in rules to make certain it was competitive.

Mr. Davis. You sound like a angry man. Must not have accomplished much in life and take you lack of realevance on this earth out on others. Mr Fuller gets credit for doing nothing you say? I live in NC and in 2015 he had a LFR car testing with no one working there yet. He was in a small shop in NC. He designed and engineered every inch of that car. If you own a Lexus do you tell your friends you drive a Toyota? Manufacturing is simple. It’s the design and RnD that is what most chassis companies fall behind with. Best of luck on your future venture. Angry little folks will always try to bring people down that they know are above them. Good day mate. I’m going to stop reading these threads because I swear I. An feel my brain melting from the crap here. Y’all are clueless.

Doug, you sound like you have half a brain anyway. Don’t listen to these clowns here. You ask great questions. The 51 team is going through this exact process you are asking and have more experience in this area than everyone we all know. Let’s see who they choose to go with in their venture to improve their race team for 2018. That will let you know who the educated teams prefer. Then John Davis and these others will get information they won’t agree with and tell you why they made the wrong decision. You will learn that the total combined IQ of the folks in these threads is around a 12. I just left the banquet and heard the rumors but let’s see who the winner is next week.

1980’s Waterford. Modifieds, Super Stocks and Strictly Stocks is what I recall. That God awful racing surface. Brian McCarthey, Phil Rondeau, Jay Stuart, Jimmey Loyd and that guy with the Dodge I can’t recall dirt tracking around the oval. I think you used street tires there for a while didn’t you? Our Stafford Street Stocks morphed into Late Models which were basically the Waterford Super Stocks. McCarthy, Rondeau, Stuart and that guy with the Dodge and those funky torsion bars that no tech inspector understood raced Stafford as Late Models and did very well. Man we thought we were so good at Stafford in the early eighties. Until our guys went to Waterford for an open Street Stock show and got crucified. 83 or 84 as I recall.
1990 Thompson SK’s. The hay day for Teddy and Mike Christopher, Billy aka Bo Gunning, Steve Chowansky and John Anderson and his Ford. Around 1990 the SK’s at Stafford was a blood bath. Was Thompson as well? Am I getting any of this right humphry?
I’ll never agree with you on the viability of strict crate engine rules but seeing as how you have experience with built SK engines I get where you’re coming from.

Come on Ron D and Billy V. You’re letting the garbage of which there is plenty form your entire opinion of the value of the thread. There’s also gold and Ron D you’ve provided a lot of it. Others as well. A suggestion. Consider what you add to the thread helping to educate many of use not directly involved now but have histories and know the challenges.

The dodges were either Mike Lovetere, Harry Rice or Andy Guimont all very successful with the torsion bars. Of course I did not help when the dodges could run a 318 and the rest of us were stuck with either a 283 or 289. Then there was C. J. Frye, Bobby Gada Jr., Art Moran Jr., Robert E. Lee aka the General, Brian Deveau, Inky Greene, Paul Jutillia and a few others. It actually was a very competetive division. Yep we were on street tires and put on a great show every week and it actually was a fun time for racing. We were normally in the parking lot by 10 drinking beer and enjoying good conversation with friends. And you are correct, unfortunately outsiders did not do very well there as the regulars had things covered. There was a secret to those street tires and I will never tell what that was. And by the way it was not soaking them before I get accused of that.

Thompson names are correct also along with a cast of others like John Sneed, Wayne Dion, Ken Barry, Scott Porrier, the kid that drove the blue #3 (his name escapes me), the kid that drove the gold #21 his name also escapes me and many others.

As far as the SKL engine rules you are correct we will probably respectfully agree to disagree.

Mike Lovetere, of course. That guy came up to Stafford and won some races. Boy he a crafty devil.
Darned tootin it was competitive racing as far as those divisions go. Brutal competition. It was the hay day for all the Street type classes at all the tracks with a good economy and rules that made entry a bit easier. We always had a consi in the Street Stocks at Stafford and 26 cars in the feature. Now at Stafford it’s seeing if anyone can beat Johnny Walker. Oh well, things change. SK’s and Lights better then they ever have been.

Amen humphry. I can’t ever get enough names from the old days and glad we shared the same space in racing time. As for snow if I’m banging on the door of 70 and shoveling snow and not dying what right do I have to complain. Got my old 91 GMC Sonoma to plow, a nice new Cub Cadet 3 stage and 30 year old 30 inch big Bertha that never let me down. Sounds like overkill but two driveways on 4 State road lanes and tenants to keep happy you can never have too much firepower. Seasons Greetings.

Well well, the great William’s first you burn JENSEN , now you throw Stosh to the curbm i don’t think Mr. B on the tour is gonna be to happy as he is a Stosh guy. Maybe you will burn Adam to LOL your just nice people

Billy v
a.k.a. (ROB FULLER)
You should probably stop reading these threads like you said and go help your 2 young puppets build race cars. Maybe teach them how to weld your LFR tag’s on your Fury race chassis. If you put as much time as you do behind your computer into your race business you would probably have more then one car out there that’s successful. And we all no Mr. Moran does his own thing’s to those car’s that’s why that one and only fury car goes so well.
Sooner or later everyone will see your business will crumble like your pathetic racing career did!!!
Happy Monday there Mate! No blooming onions for you this week

You can’t talk latemodel racing without mentioning Jim Peterson. 3time Stafford champion that guy won races and put on a show doing it. Was always easy on equipment did win the ice breaker in his rookie year.

Cheated but daddy’s money was good for the track. Jim’s car the 17 NEVER had an illegal part on it I know this because I helped build it. The only thing they did (the track) was come up with a shock rule cause they didn’t like our penkes

And we ran on a somewhat limited budget. The center section of Josh woods late model last season was originally built in 2000 by Andy Johnson Sr. and was the car we won the 01 & 02 championships with and that car had at least 1 win every year. Don’t know what happened to it Josh stopped running it mid season to concentrate on the SK

What’s uncool. The kid used to cheat all the time and everybody knew it used to chain down the left front with a binder and right before he went over the scales someone would release the binder by kicking it under the skirt. Ever notice that when dad’s money stopped flowing to the track Ryan stopped racing and what about the 8 inch wheels when there was a seven inch wheels rule he got caught on that one. I’m not saying that he cheated all the time but he did it allot. That’s why Woody stopped driving that car because they cheated maybe I’m phrasing it wrong. Ryan didn’t cheat his car owner did and maybe Ryan knew maybe he didn’t but all his championships come with an astrick

Oh and don’t forget about the purple tires. Tires are black when the heat up they are still black not purple like Barney. I blame allot of it on the officials for letting them get away with things with no consiquence when Adam gray got caught with an illegal driveshaft the suspended him for a week … He never came back. Comes down to ” it’s who you know and who you bl_w” wanna buy a vowel

One thing I will say is both yeas 2001,2002 when the 17 won the championship Ryan was one of the first people to come over and congratulate each and every team member along with his dad Dave. He is a good person and driver.

Doug. Nothing personal but when you spend all winter preparing a car each time you bolt a part on making sure it meets the rules working endless hours to get that car just right. Then you show up at the track and get beat by an illegal car week after week with the track doing nothing about it it tends to get to you but when you show up at the track knowing that the officials can rip that thing apart and find nothing but legal parts when you win with that legal car the feeling is indescribable. Cheaters never win and WINNERS never cheat. Maybe someday you’ll understand

Was talking with Les Skowyra Adams dad recently. Ronnie will be driving the car they used last year with Mike Pettit horsepower. A very potent combination and seeing how Ronnie won 6 races in 2016 and finished third in points in 2017 2018 looks like it could be a banner year for the 50 team. Wish them all the best of luck

OK fine Race dude. I spent the 80’s building and racing 3 Street Stocks and building 2 Late Models and that’s not my experience. No I never was good enough to be inspected as a middle of the pack guy. But I knew the top guys, watched them and stayed to view the tear downs. The kind of extensive and frankly bizarre cheating you are describing is foreign to me but if you say it happened there must have been something to it. Suggesting pay offs to the track officials and referring to daddy’s money I’m really not on board with. I just feel bad cause I didn’t know Possoco, I just mentioned his win total.

Some day I’ll understand your old saw that cheaters never win and WINNERS never cheat aye Rob? Better make it quick cause for me it’s a little late in the game.
You’re going to need to put that into some kind of context other then a thread bare, naive, homily that a father tells his child.

Great inside information Rob p, thanks. Can you provide more insights into Ronnie Williams. You said in another thread something to the affect that most young guys don’t know how to use a torque wrench. Isn’t Ronnie one of those kids lucky enough to have family money turbo charging his career. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’ve always like seeing him do well.

Will give it as I get it as far as Williams. As for the old phrase ” cheaters never win and WINNERS never cheat” think about it if your cheating and you win did you really win? Would you have won without cheating? But when you don’t cheat and end up winning you can hold your head up high because yo truly are a winner. Does it make sense now?

It always made sense Rob p. For a child. But in life as well as racing to do your best sometime you flirt with gray areas and yes intentionally or unintentionally cross over into the dark side. Spouting some adage that is a good goal but few live by and making it sound like the world is broken down into only good and evil is naively insulting. Merry Christmas.

Sneaking him in didn’t give us a performance advantage just gave the kid a chance to see the working side of racing. Putting 7 inch tires on 8 inch wheels effectively widena the tread width by 5/8 inch which with those particular tires was a huge advantage. 2 years later the track actually made 8 inche wheels legal. Basically what my point is is that it’s such a great feeling knowing that each time we went through tech we knew the car would pass and when we won it was an honest win. Everybody flirts with the ” gray” area some get caught going from grey to red its a fact of racing just look at the monster cup where they measure in hundred thousands of an inch. And merry Christmas to you too Doug all the best to you and your family

Cheaters always have some kind of rationalization to justify what they do. The adage applies to life not just racing. You Rob p are selectively picking your spots to apply it to and wanting to have your cake and eat it too. I do believe that is evidence of a phony.

OK Doug time to dial it back. Man you’d think I was the Grinch attacking poor old Rob p. Here’s my experience. At Stafford as an old Street Stocker the winners were for the most part powered by T/A engines. Those of us without T/A power were at a noticeable disadvantage. The hours I spent changing and experimenting lengthening and shortening the control arms, hiding lead and fiddling with the brakes was considerable. Was I a cheater, you bet. Do I believe it crossed over into my real life I’d say there is no relationship between middle of the pack race cheaters and cheaters in life. From my standpoint it’s up to under budgeted teams or any teams for that matter to do anything they can get away with to improve their track performance and tech’s job to find it. My humble view is that creative cheating in racing is an art form to be admired.

Doug you hit the bullseye back in the day T/A engines we’re the top dog. And yes teams did play with stuff like control arm angles and lenths ball joints ect. Then the track got smart and let the teams use Mopar style ball joints and uniballs in the control arms. Camaro spindles we’re the hot ticket. Then the track outlawed stock spindles and you needed to use aftermarket parts. Jay Stuart essentially copied Camaro spindles and they became the hot ticket.when they said all lead had to be inside the framework on cars with tube rear clips we added kickouts behind the wheels mimicking a stock metric clip . So yes we did dabble in the gray area a bit and yes we did have an Andy Johnson car with a T /A engine. Back then there was a guy had a blue car number 13 sponsored by nova the had this kid Mike helping him. That year we had switched to Greco power and every week Mike would bug our car owner like a knat to let him build us a motor. Long story short when Greco died Mike called and said bring me your motors let’s win some races for George. That was 2001 Mike was Mike pettit. We won back to back championships and when we started winning races a few modified guys approached Mike. Fast forward to 2017 and who’s the motor builder of choice I’ll give you 3 guesses so it goes that with some luck and a little creativety a mid pack team can become a championship team. I just don’t like the guys who blatantly cheat and flaunt the situation that’s all. I’m all for creativety and engineering a legal way around the rules that’s how race cars evolve. We all interpret the rules differently yet most times end up with the same result. I was very involved in racing for 25 years and saw allot of creativity unfortunately I was in a bad car accident in 2012 and after that can no longer be hands on. But I do offer a bit of advice Doug . Have fun racing and enjoy every minute but when it’s no longer fun do yourself a favor and get out it’s unbelievable the amount of friendships I witnessed being ruined when racing stopped being fun. I don’t know you but wish you the best merry Christmas to you and your family

And Doug I don’t cheat at life up until October 9,2012 at 3:19 pm I worked very hard building hydraulic machinery by day and helping out preparing for Friday nights at Stafford. On October 9,2012 at 3:19 pm I was hit in the left front of my work van the impact pushed the front tire into the brake pedal. I went through a guardrail and hit a utility pole at roughly 45 mph everything in the back of the van came forward as the airbag pushed me back. I have 1 vertibrae that is shattered and another imploded I have very limited use of my right arm and hand and suffer from tramatic brain injury. Best part the guy that hit me was dead when he hit me. I’m 51 and there is no surgery to fix me. So no Doug I don’t cheat at life actually I would say life cheated me. I can no longer do allot of stuff I used to enjoy including racing.

Wose part is Doug where the damage to my spine is is above the nerve bundle that controls your heart Mt spine is being pinched off and one day soon my heart will just stop beating not a Damm thing I can do about it.

Just read an article about the JRI Short track power rankings which encompasses short track racing all over the country. Some notables we’re #15 Doug Coby for NWMT. #20 Ryan Preece NWMT and #23 Keith Rocco SK Mods Matt Hirshman finished 2nd for tour type mods Matt Shepard ranked 1st with an impressive 41 wins in 82 starts in dirt mods. The rankings are decided by a vote among racing industry experts the article is posted at speed 51.com

Got one for you Doug this one goes back many years in 1978 a friend of my dad’s purchased a car from Maynard Troyer. It was one of his #6 cars that he had raced in ’77 when they were stripping the car down they had to remove the Nerf bars of course the left side Nerf bar took three guys to remove it was a design similar to what is used today but had been filled with lead and weighed close to 250 pounds. Goes to show even back then they flirted around the grey area. The car was renumbered the L21 and was driven by SJ Evanson and then Kiby Montieth this was when Stafford ran real modifieds as the tour hadn’t started yet.

Here’s the deal Rob p. You have been dealt with what I believe is one of the worst hands a person could be dealt. I won’t insult you by saying I understand what you are going through cause clearly I can’t. I will thank you for sharing it however so I can appreciate the perspective you have on some things. I will also say that having twin sons born with cerebral palsy is not the same obviously. None the less it is a life challenge beyond the norm that has conditioned me to be more empathetic about others tribulations.
I’m loving your anecdote on the lead in the nerf bar. I will say when I cheated it wasn’t a gray area at all. It’s was flat dab, no excuses cheating and my only regret it I wasn’t good enough to be caught. Really, how pathetic is that. A cheater unnoticed for lack of relevance.
So what’s the deal Rob p, do you go to any of the races and where?

Man Rob p your Mike Pettit story is simply a hoot. That story is one of the best I’ve ever heard racing related.
Seeing as how I was racing in the 80’s I can’t really relate specifically to your experience. Jay Stuart I think he crewed for Rondeau didn’t he. Learned all the tricks then built, innovated and drove to wins on his own. Am I getting that right?
I will say I was involved in the transition of Street Stocks to Late Models. Basically adding weight and spring jacking bolts. And of course going from old Chevelles to the metric chassis that drove me nuts. Very successful time the 80’s was in the Street Stocks/Late Models. Most always a consi and I was shut out a time or two. Features were absolute chaos with 30 cars, hang on and try to survive. My best finishes, 10th in a Thompson special 50 lapper with Norm Plantier driving my car and 10th in a special 50 lapper at Stafford in which I drove. Illegal lead and all.

Doug wrote, “I will say when I cheated it wasn’t a gray area at all. It’s was flat dab, no excuses cheating and my only regret it I wasn’t good enough to be caught. Really, how pathetic is that. A cheater unnoticed for lack of relevance.”

Even when cheating, you were only a midpack car. So very sad. BIGLY SAD!!

Doug very sorry to hear about your son’s my heart goes out to you. Even though you say you were a midpack car and not good enough to be caught cheating at least you were out there and hopefully you were having fun doing it. For a long time we we’re a mid pack car but then with help from Frank Lango who owned the cars we we’re able to put all the pieces together and win the two championships. As far as the good old days they we’re the best with 26-30 cars starting and still some cars going home it was a matter of survival especially the years when we ran Stafford on Friday and Thompson on Sunday. Still can’t recall who drove the blue 13 sponsored by Nova but do still get a kick out of pettit bugging Frank hope for the best for you and your family happy holidays

Easy there dareal at least Doug was out there trying how bout you? Ever drive a car, own a car or even work on a car. What’s the story behind darealgoodfella. Plus if you paid attention Doug hasn’t had it easygoing with his twins. Makes my issues seem trivial So fill me in what am I missing

Like you Doug we started as street stocks with a 74 Malibu running monadnock transitioned to metric cars then the last few years tube cars. Add 180 degree headers a a 10 inch tires and essentially these late models are like the old Stafford Pro stocks

I know you’re being modest Rob p about your jump to becoming a front runner. It takes a huge commitment and money. All that time studying, making changes, experimenting. I love hooking up with guys such as yourself that were in the trenches helping to put on the show. As for my experience I valued just making the feature and a 13th place finish in a 28 car field was a good night. We mid packers spent a lot of money and more time as well as the guys that won the races. People without the racing experience don’t appreciate the commitment and the fact that any car that participates in any race at any track has value. I am grateful and respectful of all teams that take on the challenge of fielding a car. I’m sure you do as well. Happy holidays to you as well.